Easter – The teachings are always hidden

My own personal journey with Christianity and the story of Jesus has evolved throughout my life, such a long journey from childhood dreams, battling with the fear that my religions taught me, total rejection of Christianity, the discovery of different spiritual paths and perhaps now full circle to re-visit the story of Easter and the crucifixion of Christ from a totally new understanding.

I’ve long surpassed the need to prove whether or not Christ, the Buddha or Krishna we real historical figures and whether or not the stories have any basis in factual events. It simply doesn’t matter to me any longer. What is clear is that the sermons of the Buddha and Christ are very similar and that the principles for life, personal discovery and love as taught by Krishna to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita are all compelling descriptions of our personal quest to find peace, love and meaning in our lives. The source is not important, the teachings prevail and hold a depth of truth that only personal discovery of the self can verify. No matter how long we study the scriptures, their secrets remain unknown until they are read from the deep experience of the heart that has been on a journey of awakening.

So here we are on Easter Monday – the day of the resurrection. Coincidentally, the astrological ‘Grand Cross’ that has been widely spoken of, along with ‘Blood Moons’ and Eclipses are all coinciding.

The symbol of the crucifixion and resurrection is so deeply symbolic that it behoves us to put aside whatever wounding we may have with religion so that the story can be received. What has tainted so many of the profound stories embedded in all scriptures is the distortion of spiritual truths into dogmas that have sought to divide peoples, nations and behaviours into good and bad.

I’ve often said that in order for a heart to open, if first needs to break. So let us look at the story of the Crucifixion afresh. Firstly, even the position of the body, comparable to ‘shavasana’ in Yoga, is one of surrender. Arms spread out wide, exposing the chest and the heart and in the depths of that surrender Jesus is said to have called out ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ – ‘My God, my God, why hath thou forsaken me?’. It has been said by many Sages, Gurus, Yogis and healers across the centuries that at the moment before the heart breaking open and the ‘ego’ being surrendered (our stories, attachments, need to be right etc), that we experience within us the place in which we are most separated from our true nature, our essence, soul or divinity. In experiencing this place of separation we encounter an emptiness that perhaps we have spent our entire lives trying to cover with our intellect, objects, activities, addictions and things.

It is my belief that contained within each of the world’s scriptures, no matter the religion that has sprung up around them – there are deep truths that are either accounts of true stories or are metaphors to describe our ascent to full awareness and the journey towards being a more complete and whole human being – devoid of masks, pretences, habitual defences and self hatred. Religion is in part to blame for much of our self hatred, for the dogmas surrounding what is ‘good’ and what is ‘bad’ has caused untold damage on generations of individuals with the net effect of tuning many away from deep truths that can sustain us.

The story of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection goes on to say that at the moment of Christ’s death upon the cross that the curtain that separated the Holy and the Holy of Holies was rent in two. Some Christians would argue that this was a sign of God’s displeasure with the Jews and an indication that their religion was now superseded by His Messiah. I beg to differ. If we understand the entire story as a description of the journey towards Self Realisation and one of stepping into our own fully awakened heart, then it is a fitting description that at the moment that the ego surrenders immediately following the abysmal experiences of total separation that the door to the ‘atman’, the Holy of Holies within the tabernacle that is the heart would be rent in two as the seal upon the Heart Chakra (Anahata) is broken. The Heart is the Holy of Holies. One Indian sage said it thus ‘If you desecrate a Temple, Church or Mosque you have destroyed nothing, if you desecrate a human heart, you have desecrated the abode of God’ – Muktananda.

All of our scriptures from all traditions have deep seeds of truth buried within them. The story of the Crucifixion is but one of the many that describe the process of opening our hearts to our true nature. As a healer, I have previously written about the sphincters and knots that can be seen in the Shushumna, a column of vertical power that rises from the base of the spine to the top of the crown. As we become aware of what it is that we are defending and the pain we are afraid of, then the process of surrender can proceed. Each of our hearts longs to know itself as love, so perhaps in this season we need to know which story or which lie we’ve been telling ourselves about ourselves need to die on the cross. Perhaps we will even have the courage to face every aspect of ourselves that lives in deep separation from our true nature so that finally the veil that stands between us and the absolute Holy of Holies can finally be rent in two so that we become free as children are to love.

About Shavasti

Shavasti is an author, teacher and healer. Since a very young age he has wanted to ‘speak of the things of God’ and coupled with his deep experience of Ancestral Healing, Shamanism, Family Systems and Energy Healing Work, he presents himself to you as a spiritual teacher, guide, confident and healer. From the depths of his own personal traumas from childhood and adult life in Africa, he seeks to join you on a journey that will assist to you re-discover your innate goodness, innocence and simple magnificence.